Cited by 17Epigenetics and DNA MethylationCarcinogens and Genotoxicity AssessmentBladder and Urothelial Cancer Treatments

Cross-Contamination of a UROtsa Stock with T24 Cells – Molecular Comparison of Different Cell Lines and Stocks

Open access

Abstract

BACKGROUND: UROtsa is an authentic, immortalized human urothelial cell line that is used to study the effects of metals and other toxic substances, mostly in the context of bladder cancer carcinogenesis. Unusual properties on the molecular level of a provided UROtsa cell line stock prompted us to verify its identity. METHODS: UROtsa cell line stocks from different sources were tested on several molecular levels and compared with other cell lines. MicroRNA and mRNA expression was determined by Real-Time PCR. Chromosome numbers were checked and PCR of different regions of the large T-antigen was performed. DNA methylation of RARB, PGR, RASSF1, CDH1, FHIT, ESR1, C1QTNF6, PTGS2, SOCS3, MGMT, and LINE1 was analyzed by pyrosequencing and compared with results from the cell lines RT4, T24, HeLa, BEAS-2B, and HepG2. Finally, short tandem repeat (STR) profiling was applied. RESULTS: All tested UROtsa cell line stocks lacked large T-antigen. STR analysis unequivocally identified our main UROtsa stock as the bladder cancer cell line T24, which was different from two authentic UROtsa stocks that served as controls. Analysis of DNA methylation patterns and RNA expression confirmed their differences. Methylation pattern and mRNA expression of the contaminating T24 cell line showed moderate changes even after long-term culture of up to 56 weeks, whereas miRNAs and chromosome numbers varied markedly. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to check the identity of cell lines, especially those that are not distributed by major cell banks. However, for some cell lines STR profiles are not available. Therefore, new cell lines should either be submitted to cell banks or at least their STR profile determined and published as part of their initial characterization. Our results should help to improve the identification of UROtsa and other cells on different molecular levels and provide information on the use of urothelial cells for long-term experiments.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0064139

Cites

77 of 77 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The bladder cancer cell line T24 was established in 1972 and has contributed to several cell line cross-contamination.

    “The bladder cancer cell line T24 was established in 1972 and has contributed to several cell line cross-contamination [20, 21].”

    From Investigation of Cross-Contamination and Misidentification of 278 Widely Used Tumor Cell Lines (2017) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Discussion says T24 was established in 1973, not 1972. The Discussion and Introduction support the other part of the claim: they describe T24 as a frequent source of cell-line contamination and identify multiple affected lines. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 78 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [2]WHO (2001) Arsenic and arsenic compunds, Environmental Health Criteria 224. 2nd ed. Geneva: WHO. pp. 501.
  2. [72]MacLeod RA, Dirks WG, Matsuo Y, Kaufmann M, Milch H, et al (1999) Widespread intraspecies cross-contamination of human tumor cell lines arising at source. Int J Cancer 83: 555– 563. 10508494

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Johnen, G., Rozynek, P., von der Gathen, Y., Bryk, O., Zdrenka, R., Johannes, C., Weber, D. G., Igwilo-Okuefuna, O., Raiko, I., Hippler, J., Brüning, T., & Dopp, E.
Affiliations
  • Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (DE)
  • Essen University Hospital (DE)
  • University of Duisburg-Essen (DE)
Corresponding author
Johnen, Georg
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2013-05-17
Volume
8
Issue
5
Pages
e64139
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2003173831
Cited by
17
References
78
Citations by year
2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
1.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Carcinogens and Genotoxicity Assessment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Bladder and Urothelial Cancer Treatments
Keywords
T24 cells, cell line cross-contamination, cell line authentication, urothelial cell lines, DNA methylation, microRNA expression, mRNA expression, short tandem repeat profiling, large T antigen, chromosome number, bladder cancer
MeSH terms
Antigens, Viral, Tumor, Cell Line, Humans, RNA, Messenger, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Microsatellite Repeats, DNA Methylation, Urothelium, MicroRNAs, Cell Line, Tumor, DNA Contamination, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review